[ritedhawan]

Chapter 1: My tryst with the Honda Accord begins:

My tryst with the Honda Accord began in the year 2007. It was the year in which I got my driving license at the age of 26!!, yes, believe that. I learned to drive in an accidental carburettor Suzuki Esteem, and no one taught me, I first understood what goes ‘under the hood’ of a car from the moment the ignition is turned on till the time the exhaust gases spew out from the exhaust. Therefore, armed with the theory, I merely put it to practice on the Esteem and voila, I learned to drive! This story would fetch me the membership of T-BHP two years down the line in 2009. But that’s a done deal and therefore, let’s get past it to get back on track.
My sister was married in the year 2006 and she had a MT 2006 white 2.4L Honda Accord, she used to bring it home and lo and behold. That car was beautiful, its length, the colour, the interiors, etc the likes of which you could find in any other Honda model of its generation, if I am not mistaken. This car was mesmerizing. Well, I was not the only one who had a special liking for it. My father too liked it and so did my elder brother. It’s no wonder, that within the next two years they caught hold of a second hand 2007 AT Carbon coloured 2.4L Honda Accord. It merely had 14000 KM on it. It looked great. As always, our go to point for second hand cars has been Karol Bagh, New Delhi. Since 2003 when my father bought a second-hand Opel Astra—That car was my ride during those times-- from Karol Bagh. That place has been the sole point for us to look for second hand cars. My father would purchase three different second hand from that place in the 2003-2017 timespan. Later, I too would buy my beloved used 2.4 L white Honda Accord from that place.

In the year 2010, the 2007 carbon Honda Accord become my sole drive. I drove it relentlessly, to an extent that there were days when I used to wake up in the wee hours and grab the keys and head out to NH1 Murthal and beyond just to satiate my urge to drive this car. This repeated pattern would someday end in a bad note. That came in the year 2013. I was doing a single day Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi, on my way back I drove all night and the next morning when I entered Delhi, I felt drowsy, and in desperate need of sleep yet that overconfidence of having been through it previously and made it home intact drove me to take the risk of driving. Well, all good things come to an end and there was a lifetime lesson awaiting me at the next junction. Those thirty seconds when I slept on the steering wheel till the time, I woke up too late to stop the car rear ending a standstill Tata 407. The left portion of the front came in contact, SRS engaged, left air-burst open and disengaged. I came out alive, profusely apologised to the Tata 407 driver whose vehicle bore negligible damage quite opposite to the state of the Honda Accord. The lift and carry service arrived and deposited the car to our preferred mechanic who would do wonders to bring it back to shape. My father was not amused by the situation and was miffed. In December 2015, I started off for the highway and didn’t realise that the AT level was below optimal. As a matter of fact, I never bothered about it; to my acute mortification, 60 km outside Delhi, the car broke down and I could sense a lot of hesitation in terms of change of gears. I should have parked the vehicle on the side and should have consulted our preferred mechanic. I did not, I thought, even though the car is stuck in one gear and refuses to change gears, it’s still ambling and maybe I can bring it back home and get it checked. Every KM driven was taking its toll on the AT of the car and by the time I brought it back to the mechanic. He stated that I should have better left it at the very place where it started exhibiting those signs and should have searched for ATF and then fill it. Then I should have brought the car back. Therefore, to assess the damage, the mechanic would have to open the AT and check the bands and planetary gear system. Something my father thought was not worth the effort. Long story short, this would be the final nail in the coffin, as my father decided to dispose of the car.

I cursed myself for not being scrupulous enough to check AT fluid level and never bothered about it. Even though, I periodically checked all other fluids. I already had that incident about which I mentioned in the last paragraph in the back of my mind; Reminding myself to never make that same mistake. I felt responsible for the situation: My not having any car to drive. The car was immaculate and it’s a shame it met its end. Sometimes you need hard knocks to drill sense into oneself. Everyone had those moments. I believe I had my share of those and in abundance. Anyways, I rued the fact I lost that carbon Honda Accord.

[ritedhawan]

Chapter 2: In the quest for the elusive Honda Accord, albeit a short one!

My experience with the faithful carbon Honda Accord had been great. I drove it past 6-digit mileage, and it remained a faithful companion. I have already stated the fact that I was kind of responsible for its demise. Therefore, it always bore heavily on my conscience and thus wanted to make up for it. Moreover, I loved that car model from Honda to the hilt. I still used to dream about it. I wanted to make up to it by buying another Honda Accord. However, the idea of buying a new one never came to my mind as this model had long been discontinued. It was in the March 2019 that I finally decided to buy another Honda Accord, obviously a used one.

The go to point was as always Karol Bagh. Me and my brother selected one fine day to tour that market and get in touch with some of the car dealers to get hold of a specimen. We had mentally prepared ourselves to narrow down to 2007-2008 models. I abhorred the cylinder de-activation technology of the V6 and not to forget the fuel guzzling nature of that machine; had I known at that point that the V6 uses a rubber type timing belt instead of the chain one which is installed in the 2.4L variants, that would have been the third point to knock it out of contention. Also, the 2012 and onwards were out of our budget.

We came across a few 2008-2010 Honda Accords; the first one was not worth mentioning as inside out it felt as if no one really cared for it. The second one never showed up for us to review so went for the third one which was a silver 2.4 L. The moment the driver drove that car towards us and slowed down, we could see the left-wing mirror broken, that was a red flag. My brother took a test drive of it and within minutes arrived and gave the keys back to the driver. He surmised that the car may have been in a fatal accident and should not be touched with a barge pole! —figurative meaning. Thus, we went ahead and waited for the fourth one. The driver did arrive with the car which was a 2009 white 2.4 L Honda Accord. Little did I knew that this would be my companion. Me and my brother had a round or two of the perimeters of the vehicle. The first thing that struck was the white paint looked splendid, which actuated me into thinking that this is a less driven vehicle or not that old. But a quick glance at the windscreen corrected us, it was a 2009 registered vehicle. I noticed the sagging stance of the vehicle; something affirmed by my brother as well. Anyways, my brother decided to take a test drive of the vehicle and I was in the passenger seat. The Odometer mentioned 81K Km as the mileage. The interiors were nice and clean. Now at this moment, I had already made up my mind to drop it off our list. Until my brother stated, that at least we should do a test drive. That was the crucial moment. Had I insisted upon letting go of it and look for the next one, we might as well have left this car without driving it and lost a good opportunity. The fact is, from the moment my brother turned the ignition to the time we completed the test drive, my brother at the end gave his usual smile of being satisfied with the car. I was a bit taken aback. The car was parked, and we pulled ourselves out of the vehicle. To my utter amazement my brother was satisfied with the drive. He stated there is nothing wrong with the vehicle as per his drive. The brakes bite was adequate, the throttle response, weighty steering wheel and the resultant vehicle movement was alright. We checked the vehicle again, this time concentrating on the audio, AC, window buttons. etc and I was amazed that everything worked the way it should be. We asked the driver to re-possess the vehicle and subsequently he drove off. My brother and I discussed the specimen. He stated the pros and cons of the car, I agreed with his assessment. He stated that we should go for this vehicle. I concurred. We could use the sagging stance of the vehicle as a bargaining chip to extract a discount of the quoted price. The sagging stance which I have already mentioned twice is a sign of an incumbent suspension overhaul.

The next course of action was wrangling with the dealer and later with the owner to seek a bargain that would suit our needs. Another surprise was in store during this wrangling. It came to our attention that the owner was a second owner of this vehicle, that the vehicle had already changed hands once! This gave my brother further impetus to extract a bargain. Finally, we settled on a price which was to our benefit. The measly budget that I had set aside for the purchase, we were able to shave off thirty percent. That thirty percent, I intended to keep aside for future expenses on this car. Once the transaction was complete and with the car keys in my hand and within two-three weeks the transfer of ownership got completed. My brother had some prophetic words for me: Don’t repeat the same thing with this car—alluding to the previous carbon Honda Accord experience—and don’t take it to the Himalayas; the latter advice I conveniently choose to ignore.

This purchase is in direct contravention of GTO’s cardinal rule: never buy a used vehicle with high mileage and\or age. Yet, with the measly budget that I had and my previous experience with previous 2007 Honda Accord past 6-digit KM, and under the hood of the car, the 2007 and my white Honda Accord are same, and I had a foreboding that this would be my last contact which this model. In unison, I had no qualms about this purchase. I knew as per the mileage, I may have taken over the possession of not only the car but the start of the long-term ownership of the vehicle, which includes parts replacement. I on the other hand was anticipating the same and would love to be the part of this long-term journey with this vehicle. I was confident that this vehicle shall prevail with the test of times.

My beloved Honda Accord:

[ritedhawan]

Chapter 3: The long-term journey begins...

The day the registration certificate of the car arrived, the very next day I took it to an authorized service centre to get their records updated with the new ownership and at the same time get a picture of the service history. To my utter amazement, it had always been serviced by Honda ASC’s. It came to my attention that the car had been recently serviced, next took it to a shop to get the battery replaced. Not that there were any indications of its wear and tear. It’s something that I wanted to get replaced irrespective of any reason other than preventive maintenance. This was followed by replacing the stock headlight and fog light bulbs with TVS blue LED. My cousin accompanied me and together we got that job completed. The TVS LEDs were supposed to hold out for two years as per the shop owner, however, it seems to have outlasted that timespan. The main headlight unit still has those same LED, and they work fine. The fog lights ones couldn’t last that long, and I prompted got the standard halogens installed.

It was in the month of September 2019; one had parked the car in the driveway and forget to completely close the left-side window. It rained all night and the next day when one opened the door, water had accumulated in the car, the carpet was soaked in the water, it was at that time I realised my mistake. I promptly drove the car to the ASC, they took two days to get rid of the moisture and they removed the front car seats and the carpet, dried it, got rid of the moisture and applied anti rust spray and reinstalled everything. It was a stupid mistake which I made sure not to repeat.

This vehicle was bound to head to the highways and that’s what happened, I took it to Chandigarh in Sept and then in Nov. 2019 it made its way to Manali, with my wife. This would be my first trip in this used Honda Accord to the beloved Himalayas. Not that I have not been to Manali, on the contrary I have been to that place so many times, that I don’t remember! Anyways, during the drive, and with the sagging suspension at the back of my mind, I made sure to be a bit slow on those stretches where you would find work in progress for those tunnels which are up and running right now, yet there were moments that the Accord front-bottom met the road surface. I have been used to it, as it’s the same thing I had previously experienced in my drives with my erstwhile ownership of the 2007 Honda Accord. My only concern was the plastic cladding or protection sheet that’s supposed to protect the oil sump and oil filter, that it won’t break into two! Nevertheless, deformity was expected. Not to forget, that this generation of Honda Accords and the prior ones, came with plastic under protection which latched to the car using plastic ding-dongs. Not a confidence inspiring contraption. But would stay in place, yet not suited to withstand the wrath of Himalaya’s broken roads. Those plastic ‘ding-dongs’ have their own utility, and I used to keep a packet of those in my glove box as they come in handy, not only they keep the under protection latched to the cars bottom, but those inner lining of fenders also, whether it’s the left or right one, they too are latched on to the car using those ‘ding-dongs’:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, we are back on track and on our way to Manali with a few knocks to the underbelly of the car! We stayed for the duration of three days; it was on the last day, and to those who are aware of the environs of Manali would know that there used to be an iron bridge for movement of traffic in one direction over the Beas River and a separate one for the opposite direction. Therefore, while approaching the steep decline that leads to the approach of one of the iron bridges which leads the traffic from Naggar side to Manali main highway; that the cars under protection got twisted to an extent that it was dangerously close to the ground. I pulled over once the car crossed the bridge and could see that the under protection was a few centimetres away from the ground. Now this was a matter of concern because we still had about 250 KM to cross to reach the plains. As expected, on our way, a portion of the under protection got detached and as the car accelerated it made an annoying noise! I decided to get that portion of the under protection cut to get rid of that noise and therefore started looking for a warehouse or workshop which would have a metal worker. I stumbled upon one which had a concrete platform on which I can drive up the car for the metal worker to reach underneath and use a metal scale to cut the under protection in half. That helped a lot as it got rid of that noise at the expense of exposing a portion of the oil sump! Something I was willing to live with as I could drive cautiously and could only hope that a truant stone won’t knock the sump. As luck would have it, we were able to reach the plains and stayed for two additional days in Chandigarh and then reached home to get the under protection replaced from our preferred mechanic.

This was the first time the my beloved Honda Accord got the opportunity to bear the brunt of the Himalayas, it enabled me to use paddle shifters which are bolted to the steering wheel, this is a bit inconvenient because when you rotate the steering wheel the paddle shifters rotate as well! One could make a mistake of pulling the wrong shifter while the steering wheel is being rotated. Himalayas is a fair ground to use paddle shifters as this opportunity is lost when you are driving on the plains. Just need to set the gear lever notch to manual mode and then one would see the character ‘M’ followed by the current gear number on the display. Press the throttle and pull the right paddle shifter to gear UP and left to gear DOWN. This is an essential feature. As one would need to take control of gears on the mountains, otherwise on the ‘D’ mode the car would run up the gear ladder when it’s not required. One needs the car to stay on the second gear and gear up to third and fourth in case its required. Paddle shifters give that control, however, after making multiple trips whether to Manali, Shimla, Naldhera. etc I realised that this car love inclines, shift down to second gear and push the throttle and see it surpass those vehicles ahead of whatever make and model; and once surpassed simply take the foot off the throttle and the incline would do the deed in bringing the vehicle under adequate speeds to move ahead. However, the exact opposite would be true on the declines where a second gear wouldn’t be sufficient to bring it under permissible speeds to stay afloat, the car would become unwieldy as the declivity increased and the slush box won’t relent no matter how one modulates throttle inputs; and those are the moments one would miss the gear holding capacity of a Manual transmission. Anyways, use of brakes would obviously bring the car under control but then I abhor persistent use of braking on Himalayas and would love to utilize the gear holding capacity but then there are limits to it on this car. The realization that nothing beats a Manual transmission in terms of gear holding capacity comes to fore in such situations. Nevertheless, in comparison to the 2007 Honda Accord which I previously drove on the same roads, the benefit of paddle shifters on my 2009 Honda Accord is a boon. The 2007 Accord didn’t have one and the gear notch to manually slot them from D1, D2 and D3 was a bit inconvenient. Also, fourth and fifth gear were out of reach and to bring them into the picture would require the ‘D’ mode which was unacceptable to me on the mountains.

The months of Sept., Nov, Dec 2019, and the following year Jan were months when me and my wife would head to destinations far away from our abode. In December we headed to Agra and in the first week of Jan 2020 we headed to Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. Prior to this trip, I bought a car cover for the used Honda Accord:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

During the ownership of the car, I would buy three copies of it, but why, well follow along and you will get to know why. We reached Mussoorie, Uttarakhand in the first week of Jan 2020 and were apprised of the incumbent snow fall. That was one of the reasons I bought the car cover and lo and behold the very next day of our arrival, slow drizzle changed into snowfall and at that moment I was driving my way up the narrow, ill kept road leading to the hotel and the moment I parked the car. I jumped out and ran to the open trunk and pulled the car cover and with the dexterity that would astound the best, I was single handedly able to wrap the car using the car cover in less than five minutes. (Scroll down to the first picture).


It snowed all day long and continued all night. The environs of the hotel were blanketed with snow, and it was a sight to behold. However, with the car wrapped and the parking space filled with snow, not to forget the multiple Innova taxis with which our Honda Accord was sharing parking space; they were all blanketed with snow, to an extend that it was difficult to ascertain whether amongst these cars there was one which had a car cover on, to protect it.

We had booked the stay for the during of three nights and yet stayed within the confines of the hotel for the duration of the stay as it was snowing outside. It was on the last day, with three hours left for checkout that me and my wife decided to board the hotel owned Toyota Fortuner so that it could drop us at the nearby market. It was sort of an excursion as we stayed in the hotel, and we needed some sort of consolation that at least on the last day we went out and had a walk in the market. We came back prior to checkout and then I started thinking about the approach one should take to remove the car cover. I was not worried about the luggage and stuff as it was already packed. (Scroll down to the second and third picture)


I could see that the car had a layer of snow ten centimetres thick from the front to the back, however, the flanks were clear and there were mere patches of frozen snow on the flanks. I was still determining the correct approach to pull off the car cover and could see that one end of the car cover was tucked underneath the front bumper, therefore, I decided to pull it from there however the moment it came to the tip of the hood , It seemed that there was a lot of resistance in terms to pulling it off any further, maybe under that thick coat there was the frozen snow that sort of stamped on the car cover to keep it in contact with the hood. I looked around and saw that the Innova taxi drivers were continuously throwing buckets of hot water on the hood and windscreen, sometimes on the flanks as well. It dawned on me, that they were effectively trying to melt that frozen snow underneath the thick coat. The hotel management was kind enough to spare a bucket and filled it with hot water. It struck me that the taxi drivers were literally throwing the contents of the bucket on the hood or between the windscreen and the hood. I simply emulated what they were doing and after a couple of such attempts of water splashing on the car, I determined, it was time to resume the pulling of the car cover. Once the car cover was off the Honda Accord, there was not a speck of snow on the car. However, there was no way I could take the car cover back to home as it was filled with snow and our check out was minutes away, therefore, I decided to leave it. The morning sun and the white colour of the car resplendent, I felt as if a new car had been unveiled to the public on one of those auto car shows. That was the feeling I experienced at that point. I turned the engine over and within three seconds it cranked up. After checkout from the hotel, we weaned through the hill station traffic to approach the highway and all through the way it was the nonexistence of a spec of snow on the car in a sea of others whose vehicles were inundated with snow, made it conspicuous to all and became an object of attraction, albeit for a fleeting moment.

It was in the month of Feb. 2020; I was on my way home and was a bit disconcerted about a personal issue. I was 200 meters short of my home and was approaching the usual round-about when I sped past a couple of cars which were parked at a tangent to the road in such a way that their rears were protruding out. Since, I was preoccupied with my personal issue at the expense of the attention to driving. I remember, I grazed past a car whose rear end bumper must have met the left flank of my car. It was not a case of the car driver backing up at the same time when I was getting past it. As a matter of fact, there was no one inside the parked car. It was my lack of attention which was the cause of it. When I exited the round-about and parked aside, I could see the damage done to my car. It too three days for the repair of the same. It was or preferred mechanic who fixed it. I will share the pictures; they should do the talking, therefore, scroll down to fourth and fifth picture.

The onset of Covid brought with it the prolonged period of quarantine. During those months the car remained safely ensconced in the second copy of the car cover which I had bought, the car remained parked in the underground parking, the likes of which you would find in any of the multi-level societies of Noida. Nevertheless, every ten or fifteen days one would remove the cover and drive the car in the underground parking.

When the quarantine was lifted, me and my wife travelled to Manali, HP on Nov. 2020 and it was during that period, I realized that the sagging suspension was unable to cope with the jolts that the route across HP that leads to Manali. When we came back home, I got the car inspected from our preferred mechanic in New Delhi, and the shocks were weak, and the rear engine mount was broken. The car was well past 90k km mileage, the well-known steering rack leaking issue crept up as well, it stayed dormant since the purchase of the car, but its ugly head crept up at the same time. Four OEM shocks and rear engine mount was ordered along with other parts from Boodmo. Our preferred mechanic did good to seal the leaks associated with steering rack issue as well as installing the new shocks, not to forget the engine mounts were replaced. The parts breakup details would be something I would talk about in the next chapter. Suffice to say, this was a big investment when you add four new tires to it. However, the renewed stance, the steering rack repair and the mounts replacement infused confidence in this car, there were no longer any inhibitions in my mind in taking it to Himalayas as per my wish.

This would be the last time I got worked done from our preferred mechanic because we had moved to Noida, and I was fain to try WoS (World of Service), Noida of whom I had heard a lot about thanks to TBhp.com. Prior to that, I had regular service performed by an ASC in New Delhi. I had four instances when I took the car to the ASC for service and for other jobs however on the fourth instance, I was able to see discrepancies in their work and that was the last time I went to an ASC.

The next visit to any hill station in the year 2021 would be preceded by a couple of major parts replacement. I had been sensing a drop in acceleration for quite sometime and when I saw a lot of RPM meter needle movement on idle and coupled with drop in acceleration. My intuition pointed to one of spark plugs or ignition coils acting up. It was on one of the routine visits to WoS Noida, that due to a mistake committed by the repair guy which led to the breaking up of the Tube, Air Flow (scroll down to sixth and seventh picture.)

The repair guy was supposed to open the air box which had the air filter and then disconnect the sensor and then loosen up a screw to disentangle the Tube, Air flow from the airbox. However, it seems to me, he took the usual route of simply open the air box and then move it aside to gain access to the air filter and then take it out. Not realizing that this pull movement was putting a stress on the Tube, Air flow. This being a decade old car and that tube was no longer willing to accept that movement, broke into two. I was incensed as this: a cause of unnecessary inconvenience to me. I was on a short call when this was happening, and when I came back, I was taken aback. I browbeat the repair guy as if a witness is being browbeaten under cross-examination, to understand the reason why he went for the shortcut. The repair guy was ashamed and didn’t expect it to happen. I then laid the flak on the supervisor who in turn called his supervisor and both profusely apologized for the mishappening. They assured a free replacement of the part.

I was not amused and unwilling to take their word, ordered a replacement from Boodmo which arrived after two days, I revisited WoS, and was met by an experienced service guy who was aware of the situation without me explaining it to him. However, the replacement part was not to my liking, it looked like a salvage part and had no mention of Honda on it. This was a second red flag and at that point, I opened the trunk and showed him the genuine one which I had been able to procure from Boodmo. At this point, I had made up my mind to get the new one installed and never come back to WoS. I had decided to set forth in detail the inconvenience I experienced and the audacity to offer a salvage part which did not even bear the Honda branding. Nevertheless, the experienced service guy quickly got rid of the part in his hand and set out to install the one I had bought. While installing a new one, he realized that the throttle body needed cleaning, and went back to the shop to get the required spray and cloth to do the job. He asked me to step on the accelerator as that would enable the butterfly value to stay open for him to complete the procedure. After a couple of minutes, he made a hand gesture which I misconstrued as stepping off the accelerator. That lead to the valve trying to close and his fingers were stuck! The valve didn’t close, it seemed he never meant the release of accelerator. The miscommunication led to this, anyways, when the new part was installed after cleaning the throttle body. There was an engine check light with the RPM needle above 1500 on idle! After a couple of restarts along with the assistance of the OBD tool being used to clear errors. That got the engine check light off the display. But the RPM needle would stay above 1500. The service guy stated that within two days, it would set itself in the correct place and one might not face this issue henceforth. Propitious words! as that’s exactly happened after two days. Anyways, an attempt was made by the experienced service guy to reverse the bad experience into good experience, and that too for no charge for throttle cleaning. At least, I didn’t leave the shop with a bad taste in my mouth. I continued to use their services for multiple jobs including brake pad replacement, usual car service, ac servicing, brake master cylinder and booster replacement, etc. However, whether its consumables or replacement parts, I always bought online and never relied on them for the same. Its only for the labour and service I visited them.

I was not satisfied with the acceleration of the car and my intuition led me to change all spark plugs and ignition coils at one go. For this job I decided to perform a DIY. I had two torque wrenches and a Stanley kit, and protective gloves. I watched a lot of videos, but there was a particular 1aauto video which made me confident to pursue the DIY. So, one fine day, I popped the hood and used the short wrench to unscrew the cover which revealed the ignition coils. The ignition coils had blue coloured plugs which lead to a common source. They need to be unplugged to extract the coils. Additionally, they had their associated screws. I unscrewed them as that was the easy part. The first obstacle that one came across was the inability to unplug the blue plugs from the coils. It seems that the plugs were stuck with the coil. Thus, the usual method of simply pressing on top of these blue plugs to unclip them was not working. I thought that by pressing upon the top of these blue plugs with the help of the thick end of a metal tool should be able to disentangle the plugs. I idea worked and then I simply pressed on the blue plug, and it unclicked to remove it from the coil. I replicated the same on the other three plugs however, on one of them I broke the clip. That’s the first infraction. After that I was able to pull out the old coils. Then I used a special socket which was part of the Stanley kit to remove the spark plugs and install new ones, however, couldn’t torque the new spark plugs as per the specifications as I did not have the required torque wrench which could accommodate the specification, so I used guesstimation. Installing the new coils on top of the spark plugs was easy however, while torquing the screws which are supposed to keep the coils in its place, I over torqued one of the screws inadvertently, the result was that the screw broke in the groove. One half of it was in my hand and the other half stuck in the groove. This was the second infraction. It was a cause of inconvenience because even if one were to buy new screws, the one stuck needs to be unscrewed first, therefore, using the tips of my index finger and thumb I tried to pinch and rotate the broken end of the screw which was stuck in the groove, after making multiple attempts , it rotated and one was able to unscrew it and it was a source of relief. I paused my first DIY attempt at that point and went upstairs to order new screws. Once they arrived, the resumption of my first DIY began, this time one made sure not to over-torque the screws and replaced all at one go. Then I re-plugged the blue ones to their coils respectively and re-installed the cover. Cranked the engine and there was no engine check light, drove It and could immediately feel the difference. A satisfactory result at the end with two infractions, which I took it in my strike and learning associated with it. (scroll down to eight and ninth picture.)



It was in the month of July 2021, on one of those many visits to Manali, that on the day of departure. It rained heavily. The night prior to the departure, one had placed the second copy of the car cover on the car. On the day of the departure, me and my wife had decided to leave in the wee hours. As I was removing the car cover, it was clear to me that there was no way we could take the drenched car cover with us, therefore, one decided to leave the same with the hotel. As we made our way down the road to Mandi, HP and with the rain refusing to stop; it was somewhere along the main highway the road condition started to deteriorate, the puddles came in various shapes and sizes, and it was becoming a difficult task to outmanoeuvre them. It was not yet six in the morning and there was one more car along with us, when we were confronted by a JCB road-mover. I stopped the car and stepped out to talk to the driver of the JCB. Who warned us not to pursue the road, as there were rocks which had fallen across the road ahead making it risky to drive. That vital piece of information, spurred me to make a run for my car and along the way I communicated that vital piece of information to the other car driver who turned around, drove past us as I was opening the door of my car to get in, I communicated the same to my wife who felt a bit scarred! I assuaged her fears by informing her that this inclement weather along with the deterioration of the road is something that needs to be taken into the stride. Nevertheless, I drove my way back to Bhuntar, HP. There we were informed that there is an alternative route to Mandi, HP albeit a minor road. Thus, without wasting time we took that road and thankfully reached Mandi, HP and back to Chandigarh. Later we got the news that there was a landslide on the same route, where the JCB had confronted us. In our heart we thanked the JCB driver for his warning.

A considerable portion of the car mileage has been on many roads of the beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh. As I type on my computer, the car mileage stands at 137k KM. Whether it’s the major roads or minor roads. The car has taken it in its stride. There has never been a moment that it stranded on the many ups and downs of the hill state. Nevertheless, the speed of the vehicle was proportionate to the condition of the road surface. A broken, unkept road interspersed with potholes of various shapes and sizes would extract a toll on the driver of such a long vehicle because one needs to amble across those potholes and that reduces the speed to an extend coupled with incessant use of braking. One needs to be patient, however, the vehicle following you may not be that patient and the cars may be able to overtake. It’s the heavy vehicles which find it a bit disconcerting following my car. As I have stated, the speed of my car was dependent upon the road surface, if one needs to slow down the vehicle to less than two-digit speed than it’s for the sake of avoiding the underbelly contact of the vehicle with the road surface. However, a heavy vehicle would find it difficult to crawl at such speeds esp. on declines and those were the moments where one used to give wide berth to such vehicles even to the extent of stopping my car on the side to allow them to pass. When we switch places vis-a-via my car with a heavy vehicle on an incline. Then I would find it a struggle to keep pace with the less than two-digit speeds of a heavy vehicle.

The significance of the side mirrors cannot be overstated in the Honda Accord. As a matter of fact, the longer the vehicle, the reliance on the wing mirrors increases. I cannot document the innumerable times its usage has enabled me to wean the vehicle through confined spaces or for that matter to extricate the vehicle from jams. The same is true whether driving in a congested metropolitan city like New Delhi, or highways on the plains or for that matter the roads in Himachal Pradesh. Time and again the use of wing mirrors have been a boon.

The car has been driven extensively on highways whether it’s the plains or the ones in the mountains. A considerable portion of the car mileage is a direct contribution of the highway drives. Prior to the birth of my son in the middle of the year 2023, there were only one or two instances of city driving in a week. However, since his birth there has been a spurt of city driving.

The car has been driven multiple times to Manali, Shimla, Naldhera, Kasauli, Sissu, Kandaghat, in Himachal Pradesh. It took it to Keylong and inadvertently drove it within the narrow confines of its roads and once the car came out unscathed to reach the next destination on the highway, alas my wife developed cold feet and asked me to turn around! I have driven it to Mussoorie, Jim Corbett, Uttarakhand and Jaipur, Rajasthan once.

The next chapter will ostensibly talk about parts breakup and costs.

The last picture is of my cache of parts, though incomplete.

Coming Soon: Chapter 4: How preventive maintenance pays dividends, albeit to an extent!

[mohitm29]

Good write up and love your machine especially in White color. Please guide me as how you have been able to maintain a 15 year old car in NCR? I am asking you as I too do not want to part away with my 13 year old City I-Vtec. Can I continue driving it by registering in a different state?

[Auto_guy_101]

An amazing write-up for what was truly a very well balanced and awesome car. Even in 2024, an accord makes my head turn and everytime I see one with a used car seller, I get the itch to atleast test drive it and talk about the price (although taking care of one isn't my cup of tea).

The Accord along with the Camry, Kizhazhi (not sure if I've spelled it right), along with the likes of the Civic were all serious competitors to German engineering during their prime. It's sad to see an entire class of vehicles spanning a couple segments become non existent today.

Just curious on one part: your mention of gears sounds like this was a 5-6 speed TC, but I thought the Honda ATs were all CVTs.

[Ravi Parwan]

Originally Posted by mohitm29

Good write up and love your machine especially in White color. Please guide me as how you have been able to maintain a 15 year old car in NCR? I am asking you as I too do not want to part away with my 13 year old City I-Vtec. Can I continue driving it by registering in a different state?

Actually, the cops are extra vigilant on out of state cars and make sure to stop these cars and check the papers. My FIL's 2013 Fortuner was stopped for paper checking everytime around Kundli (when coming from Chandigarh towards Delhi) for the last 2 years. So he decided to not bring that car to Delhi once it crossed 10 years.

[ritedhawan]

Originally Posted by mohitm29

Good write up and love your machine especially in White color. Can I continue driving it by registering in a different state?

Thanks. I live in Noida, and I make sure to avoid New Delhi at all costs. I limit my visits to New Delhi to once per month and it has been quite sometime that whenever we need to reach any of the towns in the periphery of New Delhi and its a requirement to go through New Delhi. then I would rather take a long route in order to avoid New Delhi. My car is a month and half away from being expired.

Originally Posted by Auto_guy_101

Just curious on one part: your mention of gears sounds like this was a 5-6 speed TC, but I thought the Honda ATs were all CVTs.

Thanks. There never was an Accord that landed on our shores that had CVT in it. It was either MT or TC based conventional Automatic.

[ritedhawan]

Chapter 4: How preventive maintenance pays dividends, albeit to an extent!

I have already stated that the day I made the purchase of the car, I may have taken over the possession of not only the car but the start of the long-term ownership of the vehicle, which includes parts replacement. Initially, the car visited the ASC three times for the usual service (I stuck to the 5000km service interval) and there were some additional jobs performed by them including AC servicing, throttle body cleaning, rear brake pad replacement where the set of pads alone would cost (Rs. 6587 inc. tax). However, it was the fourth visit in Oct. 2020, that would become the final visit to an ASC. The car was 400km short of the 6-digit mileage mark and was in for service. As per the manual, air filter is supposed to be replaced and they did put the charge on the customer invoice. I asked them to open the air box and to my utter amazement, it was the same old air filter. It was expected as I had the same experience from a different ASC for the old 2007 Honda Accord that I had, but to a customer this is the beginning of the scrutiny that shall befell the service advisor. I like any other customer then began questioning the next change of the Fuel filter replacement by asking them for the old one, which was no where to be found.(Scroll down to see the invoice). These are the same old tricks of applying a charge for a part that was never installed in the first place! forget about installing; they usually don’t have the part in stock but are willing to apply the charge. Then ensued the usual wrangling and then those two charges were knocked off the invoice. As per the manual(Scroll down to see the second picture), the next thing that needed to be replaced was sparks plugs but since I didn’t see the charge on the invoice and there was no point of asking them as the usual reply will be that its not available and we can order it after an advance is paid. I did not wish to proceed on that path, as it would be a waste of time.

Finally, we came to the main pain point and a source of anxiety to me: ATF replacement. As per manual(Scroll down to see the third picture), the 6-digit mileage mark is the time for its replacement. Therefore, I asked them to pull the dipstick to check the level and the fluid was slightly pink and I asked them to show the bottle and asked them to draw from it to compare and it looked similar. Now, we need to pause here, the fact is, I wasn’t aware that this procedure of checking the dipstick on a cold engine is incorrect. First the engine needs to run for at least a few minutes until the rotation of the radiator fan and then switched off and then wait for fifteen minutes to check the dipstick for the level and the colour. The colour should be reddish pink. My ignorance played in their hands; the service advisor offered me to keep the half-filled ATF fluid bottle as they had charged for 4 litres and half of it was still left. Anyways, I had an incumbent trip to Himalayas to think about and on top of that, a major suspension OH job that was supposed to be performed by our preferred mechanic after that trip and since I had already made up my mind never to seek services from ASC thus, I took the ATF bottle and paid the bill after deductions and went my way.

I would like to state beforehand that any mention of part numbers or serial numbers requires a quick reference to the excel that I have attached to this post (parts.xlsx). It consists of the list of parts already installed in my car along with part number and thier cost.

After the trip to the Himalayas, the suspension OH job was due up. Prior to it, one had already ordered a couple of parts bearing serial numbers 1 to 10(Please refer to the excel attached) however, they were not enough because there were two additional jobs that were supposed to be performed by our preferred mechanic. These were to stop the well-known steering leak issue, and since the last trip, one of the engine mounts, I believe it was the rear one which was broken. After close inspection, the preferred mechanic advised that the other 3 were not in a good condition and would require replacement as well. I had not ordered those parts and advised him to procure the same, however, I insisted on AFM (After Market not OEM). Those 10 parts were handed over to the preferred mechanic and they cost me in total Rs. 31241, it would take my preferred mechanic at least a week to complete all three jobs.(Scroll down to see the fourth picture) His estimation of the cost which included the work done to repair the steering rack to plug the leaks was Rs. 8500, which is still 1/10 of the cost of the new steering rack from Honda. A set of mountings cost Rs. 18500, labour for suspension install and steering would be Rs. 6500, which was a bit excessive, lathe work for bushes Rs. 1500, and other miscellaneous parts. Etc. The total would come out to be Rs. 54690 and mind you this excludes the 10 parts costs handed over to the preferred mechanic. I then attempted to seek an adjustment for the total however, those dealings are not worth mentioning here.


Anyways, that was the most expensive job performed on the car. The results were satisfactory. The renewed gait of the vehicle thanks to the suspension OH, the replacement of the mounts leads to non-existence of the noise which is associated with a broken mount, and the steering leaks plugged, although I doubted that fix would last forever.

There has been a mention of spark plugs replacement at the 6-digit mileage mark. I have already mentioned in detail the DIY one performed in my last chapter. The cost of spark plugs and coils is Rs. 1000 per spark plug and Rs. 5234 per coil respectively. You can refer to serial number (Sno) 11 and 20, in the attached excel.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the error on my part in not following the correct procedure to check ATF was bound to confront me later. The car was past the 6-digit mileage, and one had been assiduously following the correct procedure to check for the level and colour. It had not been 20k km since the fluid change at 100k km that one fine day I realised, the fluid was below the level, and it was blackish brown which is not a good sign. I had experienced slight jerks in gear changes and the diminished crawl when the gear is slotted from N to D has started to show up which only increased my anxiety as I had lost my previous 2007 Honda Accord ignoring those signs. AS per the manual, the fluid is supposed to last for 40k km before the next replacement. It dawned on me that the last service, which was performed in the year 2020 from ASC, which included ATF change was not done properly. I suspected that they didn’t change fluid, they simply topped it up and handed the half-filled bottle to me and yet charged for 4 litres of it. This was June 2022, and there was no point going back to them to confront them, or any other ASC as well, since they will end up doing the same. I then checked online for a suitable replacement and after referring to different sources, struck upon this ATF from Idemitsu (Idemitsu 30040090-75000C020 ATF Type H-Plus Automatic Transmission) which if not equal but better than what the ASC was offering:
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It took quite some time for Amazon to deliver 4 bottles of the same. The price when I had placed an order for the same was Rs. 3552 per bottle and yes it would cost me a multiple of what ASC were providing. However, once I got the ATF replaced—a simple drain and fill job-- from WoS (World Of Service, Noida), the results were amazing. First, the fluid was red, and once the replacement was complete. I drove the car and could experience seamless shifts; the diminished crawl issue was gone. It was worth it and mind you, you can take it for granted that this confirms to OEM specifications. Idemitsu provides a lot of fluids to Honda, as far as I know.

It was in Oct 2022 that I had been experiencing degradation in braking. When the brake pedal was pressed there was no effect until half of it was pressed and then the braking would come into effect. Initially removing air from brake lines made marginal difference but the issue crept up again and required replacement of Brake master cylinder and booster. At that time, I had created a separate thread for the same and it explains the issue in detail along with pictures:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-cylinder.html (Weird issue: Unable to replace brake master cylinder!)

The brake master cylinder was procured from a seller in KL, Malaysia (refer to Sno 24 Part number: 46100TC0T01 of the attached excel). The booster was procured from them as well, but I presume I have lost the invoice for that.

I have been using an OEM and an AFM air filter (Sno 12 and 13: Honda Air Filter, ZIP Air filter of the excel attached). I have used them alternately, and I can deduce that the AFM air filter (Rs. 489) was readily available whether on Boodmo or over the counter and would cost less than 1/3 of the OEM air filter (Rs. 1495) which was not readily available. However, the only downside to the AFM filter is that it wouldn’t stretch till the 20km replacement interval as specified in the manual. Usually at every service air filter is cleaned and installed for use until its 20km which means a replacement is due after 4 services. AFM won’t last those 4 services; it could safely stretch to two intervals.

When the car crossed the 6-digit mileage, I decided to switch to Liqui Moly 5W-40 engine oil:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mind you the car needs 4.2 L of engine oil. However, since the use of Liqui Moly engine oil one could see relatively low noise coming from the engine and with the rev- happy nature of Honda engine, I perceived it worked well. Again, when compared to OEM engine oil, this one cost a multiple but it was well worth it.

It was during one of the routine service visits to WoS, Noida that while the servicing was being performed and the engine was running that one heard noise emitting from the tensioner and promptly asked the service guy to check and remove the serpentine or V-belt to check for the tensioner. During which we inadvertently struck upon the belt which was getting worn and showed some cracks and required replacement. I subsequently ordered the two parts (Sno 25, and 26 of the attached excel) and got it installed.(Scroll down to see the fifth, sixth and seventh picture)

At the time of writing this chapter, there are only two issues that ail the car, and this has been observed by me in the last six months. Not that it’s obstructing the use of the vehicle in any shape and form. Improvisation in the form of keeping a bottle of spare steering fluid and engine oil bottle and top ups when required can do the deed.The first one is the steering rack leaking issue which has crept up its ugly head again, but then it was expected because that repair was not supposed to last indefinitely. The other one requires some explanation. There has been a slight decrease in the engine oil. It was not that the engine was eating up oil. It was an external leak. Now as per my understanding, if that was the case the there are three places under the hood from where such a leak can happen: drain plug, a worn-out head cover gasket, or a worn-out VTEC valve solenoid gasket. The drain plug was already replaced, and one already had the spare head cover gasket, but when the car was propped up; after detailed investigation it was realised that the leak was issuing out from the VTEC valve solenoid which means the gasket must have been worn out and required replacement. Both these issues can be fixed. The first one simply requires another repair and as for the second one a gasket replacement; but when one ponders and deliberates on the course of action, one is reminded of that stupid NGT rule of 15 years which is an unsurmountable obstacle. Thus, making the attempt futile and meaning less. Thanks to that rule the car is left with one and a half month of use when it can easily surpass a couple of years. Pick up the keys right now and drive it on any of the highways and it won’t relent, it won’t give up, and it won’t break down! Why, because that preventive maintenance which has been assiduously followed up till now, has enabled this car to bear the brunt of anything our Indian highways can throw at it and yet prevail. But what it can’t overcome is that stupid 15-year NGT rule!
That’s how the title of the chapter stuck in my head.

Well, this is not the end, I will follow up with another chapter whose title I have not yet thought about but could very well be final thoughts.







parts.xlsx












Note from Support: Please refer to this link on how to upload pictures and inserted them in-line with posts: *NEW*: Improved attachment uploading on Team-BHP!

[ImportedLlama]

This was a fantastic read and i was hooked throughout. I myself own the 7th generation Accord from 2006 with a V6 and it is the most fun and beautiful car I’ve ever driven. I was informed about the transmission issues present in the automatic transmission of these cars before purchasing it and as a matter of fact the first V6 Accord I saw had a bad transmission.

I think the strings of fate aligned because one day before I was going to buy it, it was sold to someone else. Not a big deal because I picked up my gorgeous nighthawk black V6 Accord just a week later. One thing I can heavily relate to is the maintenance costs. The basic servicing is pretty affordable but when it comes to getting new parts the prices add up really fast.

You had mentioned new brake pads were around 6800 for a pair however i had to pay 11000 a pair for mine, Although im not sure if you went with aftermarket or OEM. I bought OEM Akebonos and hence the price may have been higher. I also regularly check my transmission and engine oil just to make sure it’s not running low and that the color is fine. I did have a question, since you also have the notorious power steering rack leakage, do you get a burning oil smell in the cabin when you push the car a little bit? I notice this pretty consistently and I'm only able to narrow it down to the power steering fluid being burnt on the exhaust manifold or one of the pipes.

A small tip is that sometimes the Honda genuine parts offered by the ASC are cheaper than buying off of boodmo. For example you had mentioned the spark plugs for your car were around 1000 for each, whereas Honda gave me original NGK Iridium spark plugs for the V6 at 234 per plug. I hope you enjoy this car as much as I do, I wish I could drive mine more often but given the budget restrictions of a teenager along with a busy student life and absolutely terrible gas mileage I only take the Accord out late at night or on long drives. Nevertheless a great read and I hope you put many more kilometers on that beautiful car. Cheers!

[ritedhawan]

Originally Posted by ImportedLlama

I was informed about the transmission issues present in the automatic transmission of these cars before purchasing it and as a matter of fact the first V6 Accord I saw had a bad transmission.

You had mentioned new brake pads were around 6800 for a pair however i had to pay 11000 a pair for mine, I did have a question, since you also have the notorious power steering rack leakage, do you get a burning oil smell in the cabin when you push the car a little bit?

The conventional AT in this car is good and all it requires is timely change of ATF as per the manual and it would reward you in kind with longevity. The burning smell is definately from the engine. You stated brake pads, but which one. The cost that I had posted related to rear brake pads ones only. The OEM front brake pads cost Rs. 9164 (Part number:45022SEAJ11).

[ImportedLlama]

Originally Posted by ritedhawan

The conventional AT in this car is good and all it requires is timely change of ATF as per the manual and it would reward you in kind with longevity. The burning smell is definately from the engine. You stated brake pads, but which one. The cost that I had posted related to rear brake pads ones only. The OEM front brake pads cost Rs. 9164 (Part number:45022SEAJ11).

Yes the automatic transmission is really nice and I get smooth shifts throughout. It does get a little jerky when going from park/neutral to drive when the transmission has heated up during a long drive but other than that its been buttery smooth. I had mentioned this because the transmission used on the V6 could barely handle the power it puts out and hence timely or even preventative oil changes are recommended. This is also why I don’t dare do any performance mods because the risk of ruining my transmission outweighs 30 extra horsepower.

I just checked my service bill from the brake pads and the part numbers don’t match up so it appears that my car uses different pads from yours (Part Number 45022SEAJ02 for the front and Part Number 43022SV4G24 for the rear). Honda says that they are honda OEM parts but after some digging i found out that the Manufacturer is Akebono a highly reputable Japanese brand that makes performance brakes. For me both the front and the rear brakes cost 10718 with tax.

In regards to the burning smell I just wanted to make sure it was from the power steering oil leak and nothing else major so that I could get it fixed before it becomes even worse. Again I always get really happy when I find another Accord owner who I can share my experiences and troubles with and even get some tips from. Cheers!

[ritedhawan]

Last Chapter: Final thoughts

Well, it’s been more than five years, and one has driven the car to 58K km and there has not been a single reason ever, when I regretted this purchase. It was a handed down purchase but the single reason it refused to give up ever whether on our relatively open highways, or on the hills, or on the plains, etc was pre-emptive or preventative maintenance! Without which the car would have left us stranded. We never solicited the services of car cleaner who would pick up the keys in the morning and then use his used car cloths to clean our car, the thought of someone applying the same car cloth which he already used on someone else car and then applying the same on our car would give me sleepless nights!

I have been assiduously following a regimen of car cleaning on my own, which included use of three 3M cloths and all one needed was less than ten litres of waters to clean this car inside out. Once a year, the car went to a 3M car care where one asked for the rupees 2000 cleaning which included vacuuming the inside of the car, engine bay cleaning, and applying a single coat of semi-solid polish. That would have been suffice for a few months until one intervened and performed the same job on my own, and yes it took two to three hours of laborious effort, but then again it felt equivalent to a good workout done in the gym! As I type this post, a week prior to it, one did the same job and let me share some pictures, that should do the talking:












I had purchased the 3M car kit which has been of good quality in terms of the results:
https://www.amazon.in/3M-Large-Car-C...zcF9hdGY&psc=1

I never applied the Dashboard dresser which came along with the kit and yet lets look at some pictures without it:




The chuckable steering wheel and the all too dependent paddle shifters which are indispensible on the hills:








Everything works just the same on the center console, although I never used the CD player.


Mileage reader says 137K KM but it was prior to our recent Manali visit.


Recently me and my wife along with our son went to Manali and the car performed as per our expectations, this car has always been a great travel companion and the amount of luggage it took in was something to be astonished about, along with three adults and one infant. Except one instance where it bottomed out, it took whatever the highways on the plans or the highways on the hills could throw at it with aplomb and never felt as if it was reaching its end of fifteen years. I will now share two pictures of the recent excursion, these have been taken on the now infrequently used old road from Manali to Rohtang via Gulaba:






Alas, the NGT rule is the only insurmountable obstacle which sadly as it seems would end my tryst with the Honda Accord. Had that obstacle not been in its way, I would have loved to own this vehicle until it gave up on me. Me and my wife have fond memories with this car and as I deliberate on selling this car whether by posting it on T-BHP classifieds, or on Cars24.etc. I am sure that the day of parting will have tears in our eyes!